Screening and discussion

A short artist’s moving image screening by South West based artist Bryony Gillard as part of National Grief Awareness Week followed by an informal discussion with the artist.

Filmed in Ford Park Cemetery in Plymouth, May the earth lie light upon thee explores ideas of presence, attention, and care within landscapes shaped by loss. Following the cemetery’s dedicated team of groundskeepers, the footage reveals the labour involved in tending to the dead and the many entangled lives that share the cemetery grounds. The soundtrack, with contributions from Shirley Pegna and Tina Hitchens was recorded on site in the cemetery chapel. Rooted in deep listening and collaborative sound-making, the work invites a more-than-human perspective on time and memory. This work was created during a residency with Rame Projects for their programme ‘I hadn’t finished talking to you you yet’.

About the artist

Bryony Gillard is an artist, curator and educator and a PhD Candidate at University of Plymouth. Situated between writing, workshops, performance and moving image, her practice reflects on events, states of being, materials and organisms that refuse or resist normative capitalist structures and temporalities. Her current research centres the politics of waste — as matter both in and out of place. Her work has been commissioned and presented nationally and internationally and recent projects include a solo exhibition at Jerwood Arts (London, 2021), a performance for Playbill (Amsterdam, 2023) and a commission with Focal Point Gallery (Southend-on-sea, 2025).

Image credit: May the earth lie light upon thee, 2025, Bryony Gillard. Film still, HD video 13m 27s.

Venue: Studio 74, Exeter Phoenix

*This event is free. It is not subject to a ticketing system charge.